Brief writing guidelines
This page offers some guidelines for writing Briefs. (It does not offer short tips for how to write generally, as the name may imply. See some published Kink On Tap Briefs for examples) A Kink On Tap Brief is a linkblog post on the Kink On Tap website. Briefs are also featured content in the community links feed as well as frequent features of the Kink On Tap podcast pages. A Kink On Tap Brief should provide an accurate synopsis of the content to which it is linking. The style intentionally blurs the line between journalistic reporting and subjective opinion. (Kink On Tap does not aim to be objective.) A limit of 1,000 characters ensures the Brief is, well, brief. What makes a Brief? * Length: Between approximately 80 words/500 characters (considered short) and 150 words/1,000 characters (maximum). * Topics: Sexuality or gender-related issues, news coverage, blog posts, articles, essays, or other media. A list of topical descriptors is available at the Topic tags page. * Content: At minimum, answer at least two of the "who," "what," "where," "why," "when," and "how" questions that could be asked of the topic. See also What needs to be included in a Brief? Which sources are good sources? Here are some guidelines for determining whether a source could be a good topic for a Brief: * Is there a Brief already written about this source? If so, it's probably not a good idea to write another one. * How recently was the article or post published? Recently published pieces are better, while older pieces are worse. Sources more than a month or so old are probably not worth adding. * Does the article sound like the sort of thing we talk about on Kink On Tap? If you don't have a pretty good idea of what that is, go listen to a few episodes before you try writing briefs. On Kink On Tap we talk about sexuality and gender, as they crop up in politics, the media, popular culture - anywhere, really. However, we very rarely talk about sex or eroticism. Titillating stories will seldom fit the bill. What needs to be included in a Brief? There are certain things that need to be included in every Kink On Tap Brief, to ensure that they're useful to our readers. These are nuts and bolts; the panache you must add yourself. * Who - Who is writing, talking, being quoted? Who are the major players in the story you are covering? * What - What actually happened? What is the incident or item or happening that makes this story important? * When - Is this story recent? Was this yesterday, last week, or last month? Or is the story perhaps about an ongoing phenomenon? Orient the reader to the story in time. * Why - Why do you, the brief writer, care about this? Why should we, the readers and listeners of Kink On Tap, care about this? Examples Good briefs: * New Study Finds Abortion Does Not Cause Mental Health Problems Among Adolescents